Many people realize that they are having issues with food and can tell something in their diet is affecting them. They are often led to allergy testing and may find some answers but not the entire solution. Allergy testing is useful but only looks at one way we react to foods. To best understand food reactions, you must measure multiple ways the body reacts to food. Allergy testing measures an immune response known as IgE. Our body can be inflamed in different ways, not only from IgE but also from Total IgG, IgG4, and complement.
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The P88-DIY Dietary Antigen Test measures all four of these reactions with a technology that can be utilized right from your home. The best diet is the one that is the least anti-inflammatory, and the P88-DIY Dietary Antigen Test elucidates a diet that will decrease many types of inflammation and symptoms and is foundational to wellness. When we eat the least inflammatory diet individualized to our body, we create the best odds for optimizing our chances of health. The P88-DIY Dietary Antigen Test does just this.
Improving wellness is the key to manifesting passions and staying engaged with the world around you. Inflammation, which can be created from foods, is at the heart of many conditions that are detrimental to health and quality of life. (1,2,3) Considering our gut covers the size of half a badminton court to a tennis court, stretched from end-to-end, controlling even a small amount of inflammation on something this size provides huge benefits to our health. Research continues to emerge regarding the consequences of inflammation in our gut and how foods trigger an inflammatory process throughout the body.
As inflammation decreases, the intestinal lining or "gut" begins to heal. Rebuilding the gut results in more substantial protection for the body from irritating foods. The gut contributes heavily to our "immune tolerance." A tolerant immune system is a healthy immune system, prepared to fight infection when necessary but not in a state of hyperactivity.
An out-of-balance immune system creates inflammation that can create a cascade of events, ultimately resulting in many symptoms or worsening already existing conditions. Food allergies and sensitivities are significant reasons that this can occur.
If the gut barrier breaks down, this is a condition often referred to as "leaky gut." When gaps in the lining are present, larger molecules of under-digested food enter the bloodstream. Once in circulation, The body begins to attack these food molecules. This compromises the immune system's reserves to fight bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and consequently, the body becomes inflamed for no productive reason. This results in immune confusion and causes many other inflammatory symptoms throughout the body.
Damage to the gut also decreases the number of enzymes available to help us absorb nutrients from our food, such as amylase and lipase. (4) As these enzymes break down, our ability to absorb nutrients decreases. Poor absorption of nutrients comprises every cell in the body. A feed-forward inflammatory cycle has been created.
The P88-DIY Dietary Antigen Test examines four ways the body reacts to foods so you can interrupt the inflammatory cycle.
IgE
IgE (immunoglobulin E) allergies are the immediate responses to a foreign substance that has entered the body via food or inhalation. IgE allergies can cause severe symptoms like difficulty breathing, swelling, and hives. In more serious cases, IgE reactions can lead to anaphylactic shock. The P-88 DIY Antigen Test measures the blood level of IgE, one of the five subclasses of antibodies. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that attack antigens such as bacteria, viruses, and allergens. They can become confused or cross-reactive and begin attacking foods we ingest, causing an allergic reaction.
IgG
IgG (immunoglobulin G, total) are antibodies that provide long-term resistance to infections and have a much longer half-life than an IgE allergy. IgG-mediated food sensitivity can be more subtle, and many people live with it for years, if not their entire lives, not realizing these foods are the reason for a decreased quality of life. Sensitivity symptoms range from fatigue, headache/nausea, seizures, hyperactivity, bloating, mood changes, or dark circles under the eyes. IgG symptoms typically occur within 3-72 hours after the offending food was ingested, making it very difficult to pinpoint the offending food without testing. These antibodies can create ongoing inflammation that can make other health conditions worse.
The degree and severity of symptoms of IgG sensitivity vary significantly from person to person because of genetic makeup. The complete elimination of IgG-positive foods may dramatically improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, autism, ADHD, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and epilepsy, as demonstrated in numerous clinical studies. (5-9)
It is important to get tested for food sensitivities to know what foods work for the patient's body and what foods don't. If you only look at allergies (IgE), you will miss the IgG-mediated symptoms, creating an incomplete picture and diagnosis. The DIY teases out IgG4, which has an entirely different mechanism of action and represents it separately. Precision Point Diagnostics believes that the most accurate result is created by measuring IgG 1-3 together and IgG4 separately. IgG4 blocks allergies, whereas types 1-3 increase sensitivities. Looking at individual values increases the clinical utility of the test.
IgG4
IgG4 (immunoglobulin G subtype 4) is another antibody produced to fight infection. IgG4 is used in allergy therapies to help neutralize the reaction of IgE. This is because of its potential to decrease histamine responses by blocking IgE from attaching to receptors. IgG4 is generally beneficial and will block allergic reactions from occurring. It does this by slotting into the receptor where IgE would bind and blocks it, inhibiting IgE's ability to create histamine release. However, too much IgG4 causes immune-mediated conditions, known as IgG4-RD, that typically affect multiple organ systems in the body. For these reasons, it's important to know the levels of IgG4 in the body to maintain a correct balance. An example of a tissue that is susceptible to higher levels of IgG4 is the esophagus, resulting in Eosinophilic Esophagitis. IgG4 also interferes with the thyroid, contributing to autoimmune thyroiditis, and can also cause IgG4- Related Diseases (IgG4-RD) of the ovaries and prostate.
C3D
C3D (Complement) is a protein of the innate immune system that is activated by microorganisms in the absence of an antibody. When C3d is activated in response to an antigen, the C3 portion attaches to the antigen. This activation, even though independent, will amplify the reaction that occurs with total IgG, significantly increasing inflammation and sensitivity symptoms. This same reaction which was designed to amplify inflammation in microorganisms can be triggered in response to foods. If complement is present, it will amplify an IgG reaction as much as 1000 to 10,000-fold. Therefore, tests that only measure IgG may miss the reactions to foods that are most clinically relevant. If complement is known to have a high level of reactivity in the condition you are treating, then foods that confuse and irritate this part of the immune system should be given special attention.
In addition to groundbreaking technology that measures four independent ways our body reacts to food, we also recognize that no matter how profound a technology is, if it isn't readily accessible, it will lose value. The P-88 DIY Antigen Test is the first of its kind to utilize a fingerstick technology with an activated tip that gives the ability to use a very tiny prick that is barely felt at all and gives the ability to get a large amount of specimen that allows over 350 reactions to foods to be run on a single test.
This technology was designed by a Ph.D. who saw his diabetic father suffer trying to stick his finger with larger pricks and often unable to produce enough blood. He designed a technology that uses something like a sponge for the tip of the collection device that moves blood into a tube facilitated by capillary flow dynamics. This means that the tip is active and will provide much more specimen than an average fingerstick while feeling less.
Precision Point combines all four independent immune markers, IgE, IgG, IgG4, and complement, in one test that can all be done without a phlebotomist and from the convenience of your own home. Precision Point is proud to lead the field in scientific development while making the experience easier and accessible for patients everywhere.
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